NW Valley Times

Nikkie Gomez-Whaley, former president of the Washington Elementary School District Board of Education, said other members ousted her as president based on "White privilege" after some parents had called for her removal altogether from the school board.

"Our district serves 75% BIPOC students. None of our senior leadership and only two of our board members are of color. Last night, the three White members of our board decided to vote me out as board President without a single reason given," Gomez-Whaley posted on LinkedIn after the meeting.

BIPOC means Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

The other board members did not say why they replaced Gomez-Whaley with Jenni Abbott-Bayardi as president. 

However, the board has faced backlash from some parents since it voted in its February 23 meeting, under Gomez-Whaley's leadership, to stop accepting student teachers from Arizona Christian University, citing the school’s “Anti-LGBTQ" stance on marriage. The district had been accepting student teachers from ACU for 11 years. An organization called the Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit on March 9 challenging the termination of the student-teacher relationship with ACU, claiming religious discrimination.

"Despite there being zero complaints about an Arizona Christian student teacher or alumnus, the School District decided to terminate its relationship with Arizona Christian and its students solely because of their religious status and beliefs on biblical marriage and sexuality," the lawsuit said.

A Glendale resident, Ashlee Minton, filed a recall petition on April 3 to remove Gomez-Whaley altogether from the board. A recall petition requires signatures by 25% of eligible voters, or 8,776 signatures, by August 1. If the petition obtains sufficient signatures, a recall election is held.

During the board's May 22 meeting, board member Lindsey Peterson cited district language saying, “The Board may elect a Board President at any time, for any reason, providing that the matter has been properly placed and noticed on the Board agenda consistent with the open meeting law and adopted by the Board” as the source of authority for electing a new board president.

Gomez-Whaley had been elected board president in January 2023. She said she was the first Latino woman in the position. 

After the call for Gomez-Whaley to resign, she said “I simply have not been provided any kind of information or concerns or requests as to how I have not fulfilled the office of this president. I will say that despite the fact that I have more experience than the rest of the board members combined, and the fact that I have been requested to train boards and districts across the state and country, I find it interesting that I am being called to be removed when absolutely nothing has been given.”

All board members but Gomez-Whaley and Tamillia Valenzuela, who had led the move to terminate the working relationship with ACU, voted to name Abbott-Bayardi president. Abbott-Bayardi had been board vice president. The board elected Kyle Clayton as its new VP.